A star like the Sun has an internal driving in the form of a magnetic field that can be seen on the surface as sunspots. Now astrophysicists from the Niels Bohr Institute have observed a distant star in the constellation Andromeda with a different positioning of sunspots and this indicates a magnetic field that is driven by completely different internal dynamics. The results are published in the scientific journal, Nature.

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have grown and catalogued more than 130 bacteria from the human intestine according to a study published in Nature today (Wednesday May 4, 2016).

The researchers have developed a process to grow the majority of bacteria from the gut, which will enable scientists to understand how our bacterial 'microbiome' helps keep us healthy. Imbalances in our gut microbiome can contribute to complex conditions and diseases such as obesity, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and allergies. This research will allow scientists to start to create tailor-made treatments with specific beneficial bacteria.

A new study suggests there may be an overlap between rare genetic variations linked to bipolar disorder (BD) and those implicated in schizophrenia and autism.

The study, by researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and published recently in JAMA Psychiatry, adds to the growing understanding that many psychiatric diseases share genetic roots, but is among the first to suggest a genetic overlap between bipolar disorder and autism.

Montreal, May 4th 2016 -- A new study led by a team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and Cystic Fibrosis Canada reinforces the benefits of newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Despite the fact that newborn screening has been implemented across North America and in several European countries as a way to improve overall survival rate and health outcomes of people living with CF, it is still not available in Quebec. The findings, recently published online in the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, add to the increasingly overwhelming evidence in favour of newborn screening as a way to improve the quality of life for patients living with this chronic disease that is still incurable.

Coral reefs and hard-shelled sea creatures such as oysters and mussels are constantly being threatened, not only by the detrimental effects of stressors such as climate change and habitat loss, but also by microorganisms.

Researchers have discovered how a particular type of cyanobacteria, a photosynthetic microbe, is able to bore into and live within solid carbonates, the main mineral that makes up coral skeletons and seashells -- hastening their erosion and causing trouble for shellfish farmers.  

Organisms that can do this, known as euendoliths, infest many kinds of rock, but they are especially adept at boring into rock types that consist of calcium carbonate, such as limestone and marble used to make sculptures, buildings and other man-made structures.

Elevated carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere may increase water-use efficiency in crops and considerably mitigate yield losses due to climate change, according to a new NASA study.

The results, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 18, 2016 show some compensation for the adverse impacts of temperature extremes and water scarcity caused by increasing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.